“The remark about being wary of premature intervention is
a sign that they are definitely studying it,” said Felipe Alarcon, an economist at Banco de Credito & Inversiones in
Santiago who used to work at the central bank. “With the QE3
comment it’s a chronicle of a death foretold. We can’t fight
with conventional measures against the tide of dollars coming
our way.”

Selling local currency bonds to offset the extra money
being added to the financial system in a currency intervention
could push up the cost of the measure, eating into the central
bank’s balance sheet, Vergara said. His remarks were posted on
the central bank’s website.

Copper rose on speculation sliding profits for industrial
companies will spur stimulus measures in China, the world’s
largest consumer of the metal and the biggest buyer of Chilean
copper.

Copper for December delivery rose 1 percent to $3.746 a
pound on the Comex in New York.

International investors in the Chilean peso forwards market
increased their short peso position to $9.2 billion on Sept. 25
from $8.8 billion a day earlier, according to central bank data.